NFL Joins Fight Against Child Obesity
By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The National Football League has joined the fight against childhood obesity with a campaign that includes advertisements aimed at getting students out of their chairs and lesson plans intended to introduce physical activity into subject areas beyond P.E.
The "What Moves U" campaign was designed by the NFL and the American Heart Association to address the decline of physical education in schools and the diminishing amount of exercise that American kids get.
The NFL kicked off the campaign this week with New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning visiting a Manhattan public school and extolling the benefits of being physically active. Manning watched as seventh-graders went through a fitness circuit including sit-ups, push-ups and jumping rope.
"It's great when you have the music and have a gym where you can do this, and just doing all sorts of different exercises and just get the heart rate up," he said. "It's fun but they're getting a good workout."
Some 25,000 middle schools that are participating in the "What Moves U" campaign will get lesson plans intended to broaden physical activity in schools.
A language arts lesson has students create and perform a rap that demonstrates action verbs, while a science lesson has kids play scooter tag, with one group of students representing cholesterol and another representing healthy hearts.
Manning demonstrated a math lesson by having an eighth-grade class perform squats, then count their own heart rates for 15 seconds and multiply by four.
There will also be print and broadcast public service announcements and a Web site that will prod kids to get up out of their chairs after 10 minutes, said David Krichavsky, the NFL's director of community affairs.
"With the explosion of the childhood obesity statistics recently, our board of directors decided that we were in a particularly good position to make a statement and to make a difference," Krichavsky said.
Charlene Burgeson, executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, said youngsters should get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, a level achieved by only 36 percent of high school students.
"The concept of integrating it into kids' classroom time has a lot of benefits," she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 percent of U.S. youngsters are obese and millions more are overweight. Obesity can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, sleep problems and other disorders.
NFL fight against childhood obesity
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